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Release Date: September 15, 2006

While Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson has found a home in Hollywood with some legitimate lead roles in the past few years, his newest role lands him in a story that has already been told and has definitely become old.

The film begins with a statistic stating that nearly 75% of the 120,000 teenagers that pass through California detention centers each year, end up back in jail. Sean Porter (Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson) is fed up with the current system and decides to try a completely different approach towards rehabilitating the troubled teens. He seeks out an activity that encourages team building, hard work, enhanced self esteem and above all discipline. Sean, with the help of his colleague Malcolm Moore (Xzibit), starts recruiting a a football team of delinquents.

Sean finds that making this dream a reality, is easier said then done. Meeting criticism and resistance, Sean finds trouble scheduling games against local High Schools. With the same hard work and persistence that Sean instills within his players, Sean schedules a full season and funding for equipment. The most difficult task though, would be to help these teens from rival gangs not only to set aside their differences, but to play together as a team.

More and more I am beginning to think of this decade as the American “Feelgood Film” movement. The decade has thus far been filled with these “based on a true story” stories that never cease to entertain, but never truly provide any substance or social value. On the other end of the spectrum is how Rocky, which was loosely based on a true story, found a way to uplift an entire nation during its Bicentennial. What this decade has had to offer though, has been stories that rehash the same old idea of an everyman (or a whole team of everyman characters) who rise above the critics and his own downfalls to ultimately succeed, no matter what the outcome. As mentioned earlier, films like these are ultimately entertaining but before the film even starts, almost the entire audience can not only tell you the ending but also can predict the onslaught of character cliches that will undoubtedly be present.

“The Rock” has found a home in Hollywood with past lead performances, and through supporting roles such as in Be Cool that allowed him to display a range of abilities that noone could have really expected. Gridiron Gang allowed Johnson to flex his acting muscles a bit more than most of his roles, and required him to step outside of his comfort zone. Johnson handled his role well and provided an inspirational performance. The supporting roles were also solid, anchored heavily by a cast of young actors that not only look believable as troubled teens but also as football players.

The pace of the movie was a bit frustrating due to a heavy hour of character and plot development. Once the team had played its first game and Coach Porter announced that there would be 9 more games and undoubtedly some playoff games, all I could think was “how long is this movie?” Alas, a conveniently placed montage of touchdowns placed me in chronological position for the big game.

While Gridiron Gang is not something jump for joy about, it was as entertaining and uplifting as one would expect it to be. Hollywood has yet again paged through the recipe book for Box-Office success and followed the ingredients precisely:

1 Dash of troubled adolescence
12 oz Authority figure with a troubled past
1 Gallon of underdog story

And Viola! We have a mix between Remember the Titans, and The Longest Yard, enjoy…

Final Grade: C

The Upside: Fun football movie, The Rock getting emotional

The Downside: Haven’t I already seen this?

On the Side: Though portrayed as the antagonist of the film, the real Paul Higa (Leon Rippy) was one of the biggest advocates of the program.